March 11th! The Birthday Boy!

I can't believe that I forgot to post about LaVerl's surprise birthday

party. Tami had the idea to have a party for her Dad, and made plans with her brothers & sisters, at least those that live close enough to come, to surprise him! Lisa & Barry came on Friday and Tami & Ryne had us all come to dinner at their house where they surprised their Dad. She made us really good bacon, avocado, green chili hamburgers! She also made twice baked potatoes that she forgot to serve!! Then we played Mexican train.

Then on Saturday, Bret, Becki & kids surprised Dad! I made Dad his favorite meal of fried chicken and mashed potatoes, then afterwards, a few friends surprised him by coming over to wish him Happy Birthday. Tami & Lisa went all out and made LaVerl a cake. A special, BYU cake! If you look closely you can see from the candles how old he is!

Some of our good friends, the Rogers, the Hamblins, Penrods, and the Boones. 

We said 'no gifts', but he got a few anyway.

Ryne & Barry 

LaVerl was excited about his metal detector from
Barry & Lisa!

Tami made this for her Dad to put up at
Roosevelt!  He loved it!

I've got to include some cute pictures of the
grandkids!

Blake, Kingston & London

Gramps enjoying the kiddos, you can see
how happy they all were!

Our newest one, baby Dempsey!

   So it was a pretty fun weekend with the kids coming

and getting to spend some time together! We were

celebrating LaVerl now being eligible for Social Security! 

I know that's hard to believe because he is

so young looking, healthy and agile!

A Crosby Brother's Get -together!

   Sorry this post is sooo long!

Last week we headed to Las Vegas to spend a little time with
LaVerl's brothers.  Rick & Paula had planned this trip, and we just kind of invited ourselves to come along. Dave wanted to show them some mines that he purchased about 15 years ago, that are now having some interest taken in them because the price of gold is so high. We are all hoping that it works out for them!

So we drove to Beatty, NV and meet with the guys from Corvus Gold Corp. that have drilled about 20 core samples from these
hills and tell him that they look very promising. They would
have to haul tons & tons of rocks to get enough gold out,
but they think it would be worth it.
The weather was so COLD! Dave started out trying to be
really tough in just his shirt, he hadn't even taken a jacket.
Pretty soon, he was digging in the back of the car for anything to
put on and ended up wearing Paula's maroon, velour jacket
and ear warmer. 

Rick & Paula had been to Brian Head, so they
had ski clothes, the rest of us were using
anything we could find to stay warm!

The hills are full of little caves like this that
people had started digging looking for gold.

This was the entrance to a really big tunnel we could
stand up in and followed a long ways until we came
to this wood work with ladder that lead down
about 50 feet. There must have been something
here at that time for people to go to
all this work!

This was the hole that was above the hole that went down.
One can only speculate that something was here at one time!

We spent the night in Beatty, NV. It gets a lot of tourists just visiting the old mining towns.

The next day we went sight seeing. Its hard to imagine, but
Rhyolite was--^] Started as a two-man camp in January 1905, Rhyolite became a town of 1,200 people in two weeks and reached a population of 2,500 by June 1905. By then it had 50 saloons, 35 gambling tables, cribs for prostitution, 19 lodging houses, 16 restaurants, half a dozen barbers, a public bath house, and a weekly newspaper, the Rhyolite Herald. Four daily stage coaches connected Goldfield, 60 miles (97 km) to the north, and Rhyolite.They had piped water, electric lines, and railroad transportation that served the town as well as the mine. By 1907, Rhyolite had electric lights, water mains, telephones, newspapers, a hospital, a school, an opera house, and a stock exchange. Published estimates of the town's peak population vary widely, but scholarly sources generally place it in a range between 3,500 and 5,000 in 1907–08

What's left of the railroad!

This was once a casino? and is the only thing left that seems
to be still intact.

This was a 3 story bank, it was huge!

There are bars on the back 3 small windows, so we assumed
that this was a jail. 

This must have been once a very active mine.

What's left of Rhyolite, NV

These were cool, we just weren't sure what they
were. A miner and a penguin??

They push the 'ghost town' theme!

Our next stop was in Death Valley--
"Scotty's Castle"! Over 100,000
tourists come here every year!!

It has quite the story, much to long to tell here!

The only reason they could build in Death Valley was
because there were two springs that produced 200
gallons a minute of WATER! That's how all the electricity
was made that powered up the house.

The house cost between 1.5 and 2 million dollars to
build, which at today's cost would be over $27 million
dollars!! And this was a summer home!

The millionaire that built it was also an engineer. He put in
these water falls (no water now) in the house that helped keep in
cool and moist.

They made friends with the local indians around
and traded baskets for goods. These baskets
are now some of the most expensive artifacts
in the castle, I think they said each one is worth over
$15,000!! They sit on a pad that if moved sets off an alarm
in the security system!

This was the ceiling in the music room. The wood-
work in the house was all original. This room
contained a huge pipe organ that
was hauled in by wagon train. 

The tile was all still in wonderful condition. The furniture all
handmade and beautiful.

Plans were made for a 17 million gallon swimming pool
that was never finished, but all the tile is still
in the basement.

It was really amazing and worth seeing. We even did the

underground tour and went down into the tunnels he built!

Sunday we spent in Logandale, and the boys started going
through some of their Dad's paperwork. I think they might
have gone through one drawer!! Thats a start!

They had fun playing this game, they shoot these round
disc's, trying to knock off your opponent, plus trying to
get your disc in the hole in the center. I can't remember the name.
It was a fun little vacation and get away. Thanks to Dave & Mary
for all you did! We had a great time!

Fun Times..

A few weeks ago we went to Roosevelt and enjoyed
a little 4-wheeling.

It's Spring there now, the water is running in the streams, the weather was great, maybe just a little cool.

View of the lake.

While Laverl was watering all his plants, this little baby
rabbit got soaked too.

He brought him into the house, where he spent the
night in a box with a warm towel. We were wishing
we had some grandkids there to see it!  THEN...

About a week later, my sister Sonja and I headed to
Mesa to see our cousin Kathy and Aunt Nita
& Uncle Darold. I haven't seen them forever!

It was really fun spending a little time with them! They gave
up a couple of days of their vacation in Sedona to come
see us! I hope to see them again in August!